Origin of Salvia Divinorum.....

Salvia Divinorum has been around for hundreds of years and its origins can be found in the Mexico Mountains in a region known as Oxaca. The Mazatec Indians used to and still do use the product because it is believed it has incredible healing powers and goes along way back in the history of these people. The history of the plant is not fully understood as to exactly where it came from and by whom it was introduced and its actual origins are very hard to trace back. There are many stories of where and who introduced the plant but it has been considered to have been a wild plant that was modified by the Mazatec or another tribe to produce what we know today. Even today with all the technology and advancement in science botanists have still not been able to prove whether the plant is natural or a hybrid.

The Salvia Divinorum plant is always best when it has come from the natural habitat within the Mexican forest. The plant grows at elevated sea levels from 300 to 1800 meters and the plants have large green leaves that are anywhere from 10 to 30 cm in length. The best growing conditions and the most effective Salvia is grown in fertile soil along the length of the stream/river banks in the Oxaca region and this is where the ideal growing environment of low light and high humidity is best found.

The first recordings of Salvia Divinorum were way back in 1939 but it was exceptionally hard to access the areas within the Oxaca region because of the Mazatec Indians and their reluctances to reveal the growing sites. In order for Botanists to be able to identify the plants and unravel the properties they would need the samples of leaves and it wasn’t until 1962 that two highly regarded Scientists and Botanists traveled to the area and made contact with the Indians and were given some flowering specimens of the Salvia Divinorum.

This led to the rise of other areas where the Salvia was being grown soon there were fifteen different recorded areas where the Salvia plant was being grown and a whole range of strains were born. It has been reported that there are other similar plants to the Salvia Divinorum which are speculated to be part of the family and these include Poyomatli and Cacahuaxochitl. Both of these plants are native to the same region in Mexico. For many years the Salvia Divinorum plant remained unknown by the modern cultures of western civilizations and ultimately it was the advent of the internet that brought the product to the attention of the people.